Enrolment

Here we wish to explain the enrolment process in a way that addresses the most frequently asked questions of “how it actually works”. If you like to also read our enrolment policy you will find it if you follow this link.

Enrolment for junior infants

All applications that we receive until the 31st of March of a given year will be considered in the first round of enrolment for the school year starting in September.

For enrolment of a child in SSP it is required that you attend a pre-enrolment meeting. At present this meeting is to be arranged between you and Carmel Morley, the principal of the school. This meeting should also take place before the 31st of March to make sure that your application is complete.

So, there are two formal requirements to be fulfilled before the 31s of March:

1. that you have submitted the enrolment application form (you can download it from the webpage if you like);

2. that you attended the pre-enrolment meeting.

Between 31st of March and 15th of April the Board of Management will consider all enrolment applications that were received before the 31st of March.

If the number of applications does not exceed the number of places available all children will be admitted, as long as the Board does not see a reason to refuse admission, e. g. in cases of a child with special needs such reasons could be that the resources required to cater for the child are not available in the school.

So let us say you have enroled your child for September, you have submitted the enrolment application form in January, the pre-enrolment meeting took place in February, at the end of March there were 15 applications made for enrolment (including yours), and there are 20 places available for September – in this case your child would be admitted and starts school at SSP in September.

This is obviously the smooth and easy example.

It gets a bit more tricky if there are more applications than places available.

If by the 31st of March there are more applications for enrolment submitted than available, the Board of Management will establish an admission list. On this list the names of the children for whom applications were made are put into a prioritising order. Children will then be offered places in order of this list.

Let us say again there are 20 places available for September and there were 30 applications submitted by the 31st of March. In this case the first 20 on the list will be offered places. The obvious questions then:

How does the Board of Management decide the order on the list?

and

If a child is listed below the first 20, does that mean there is no chance for the child to be admitted?

Let us look at them in turns. For the order on the list the criteria that the Board of Management will apply are: Ethos consideration, Siblings of children already in the school, Children of current staff, Age of the children. These criteria will be looked at in this order. Therefore, yes, it is an advantage to have older children in the school already, and yes, children of staff will be prioritised, and yes, children who are older will be prioritised.

For the second question then, there is still a chance that a child who is not amongst the first twenty on the list can be admitted to the school. If one or more children of the first twenty who are offered a place does not take up the offer, the list of the remaining children will function like a waiting list.

The first round of offering places to those children who are on the top of the list takes place in April. The Board of Management will send the offers to the families by the 15th of April. Let us say you are one of those families. You now have two weeks to confirm that you accept the offer. This is important, because if you do so: perfect, your child will start at SSP in September. However if you don’t confirm accepting the offer by the 30th of April, the place will be offered to the next child on the list.

What then, if you are late with your enrolment application, i. e. if you submit it only after the 31st of March, or if the pre-enrolment meeting did not take place before the 31st of March?

In this case your child will be placed on the waiting list after those children for whom applications were received and pre-enrolment meetings took place by 31st of March.

Transfer from another school

This is a rather straight forward procedure.

Pupils may transfer to Sligo School Project at any time, subject to available space, and where appropriate, the approval of the Department of Education and Skills.

In cases where for a given school year there are more applications for transfer then there are spaces available the same criteria will apply as in junior infants enrolments.

The Board of Management reserves the right to withhold admission in cases of grave discrepancies in terms of the ethos of the school and the family.